Sticks, Stories, and Scotch

The Book of Face helpfully* pointed me to a December article from PC Gamer for their Top 25 Best Space Games on PC. Not that I have too many issues with their choices (although how System Shock 2 didn't make the cut is beyond me) but man is it ever kind of depressing that the majority of the good space combat sims are all from the '90s.

Although I'm an original backer of Star Citizen, I wouldn't say it belongs on the list either. It's still too far from finished. Hopefully it's going to be a worthy successor to the Wing Commander throne someday...

This is the cockpit view that made me fall in love with space games.
Screenshot from gog.com

Independence War really belongs on there too. A game with full Newtonian physics more than fifteen years before Elite: Dangerous, and one of the few that really made you feel like you were captaining a bigger ship. Also, what's a list of space games without a single Star Trek game? Granted a lot of those have been hot garbage, but Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force was excellent, even if it did have a pretty weak source show to work with. At least it wasn't based on Enterprise.

I-War isn't all that complicated. Okay, it is.
Screenshot via gog.com

For my (admittedly biased) money though, I would have included Star Trek: Starfleet Academy as the representative for that franchise. Not the most polished space sim, but the only one that gave you the chance to stand on the bridge of a Federation ship and resolve conflicts with violence, or occasionally diplomacy. Also included a fair number of cameos from members of the original Trek cast.

That's your captain (on the right) and part of the crew though. You're
definitely more of a Kirk than a Picard.
Screenshot from gog.com

*Not actually helpful